


A dream of Sovngarde

by altairattorney



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 10:12:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/altairattorney/pseuds/altairattorney
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Smile, lady, and look up to your future – for that land goes by the name of Skyrim, and you are in it already."</p>
            </blockquote>





	A dream of Sovngarde

**Author's Note:**

  * For [whatsubtext](https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatsubtext/gifts).



> Skyrim is rich, varied and fun. If you have something you've really been wanting to do with it, do it! -- whatsubtext

The young Nord woman is twenty-seven years old, and has been a beggar for three weeks.

The citizens of Riften first notice her near the sewers, cringed in a nervous sleep. The bundle of flesh on her legs is her daughter – a child who has no tears left, who has drowned in a tearful silence for too long. Her gaze looks more lost than she does herself; she roams the streets like a wounded sparrow, wondering what the starting point of charity may be.  


She learns fast – it is painful. The people that listen to her become less and less; but she keeps telling of the dragon that burned her life to ashes, taking with it her husband, her farm, her money and anything that wasn't the two souls she is responsible for. The more time passes, the more her story sounds like the lies of a merchant. In spite of this, and of the humiliation it causes, she has to keep herself alive.

At late night, when nobody is around, she talks to her silent daughter incessantly. Every thousand words, the child answers her; she speaks nothing more than a question. She starts repeating it every night.

“Where will we be tomorrow, mom?”

The woman begs her to trust her, to believe in her – for the Divines will see to the both of them someday. And when the marks of true hunger start showing on her small face, she holds her close and tells her the truth.

“Far away from here, honey, there is a land the old Nord legends speak of. It is the land of kind people, of ears that are always open. Food lies around in every town, ready for whoever might need it – and with a little luck, and a sharp eye, you may even find gold.”  
  
“Really?”

“Really. And all the animals are peaceful, and walk side by side with their hunters – when they are eaten, in the last piece of meat, you may find pure diamonds and gems. Nobody walks their own path without looking out for people in need. Nobody is ever hungry, and most of all... the good and the brave don't even have to dream of suffering. They get all they need, for the rest of their lives.”

“Are we really good?”

“Yes, honey, I guess we could say so. If we leave tomorrow, at dawn... Mom will bring you there.”

“So... will we be there soon?”

The woman sighs, holding back her tears.  
  
“Very soon. Trust me.”

She is half-asleep already, and would slip in her dreamland if a dark silhouette weren't walking towards her in the first rays of sunrise. She bears a wide cloak and armor, her face in the shadows – but the woman has a faint memory of her, like every citizen of the province does by now.

“I have too much for myself”, a sweet voice whispers. “Money wasn't made to dust in lockers.”  
  
A bundle falls to the woman's knees; the smell of the finest cooked meat, as well as the song of countless gold coins, accompanies its landing. The beggar, shocked and in disbelief, feels her life blossom again from that piece of white linen.

"Smile, lady, and look up to your future – for that land goes by the name of Skyrim, and you are in it already."

**Author's Note:**

> Dear giftee,  
> I hope you enjoyed this tiny Skyrim story I managed to stick into my Yuletide treats schedule <3 I truly liked the possibilities you left as prompts, so I decided to write a story about a minor character (a beggar) and a fun fact of the game (the fact that everyone sells you food or goodies when you find a lot of them around, for free, with *surprises* like septims or gems in dead animals or creatures.) I also hinted at other peculiar aspects of the gameplay: the fact that, after a while, we are all too rich (counting all my properties, I must own more than six-hundred thousand pieces of gold...) and that we are the only ones who can directly donate to beggars.  
> Well... the story didn't turn out fun at all, but I hope you liked it anyway! <3


End file.
